


Bruised

by occasionalfics



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, abuse mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 03:58:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17073032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/occasionalfics/pseuds/occasionalfics
Summary: Thor notices you've been hurt by someone who should care for you. He's not happy about it.





	Bruised

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted @ occasionalfics.tumblr.com in May 2018 as a request

_I bruise easily_ you’d told them. _Sometimes all it takes is holding my hand too hard…_ It wasn’t a lie, and that was the hardest part. But you were depending on a technicality. You were hoping that the team wouldn’t notice the bruises and cuts because everyone was covered in them anyway. If you did your job the way they did, you wouldn’t ever have to wear long sleeves or pretend like you weren’t in pain. Every one of them were in pain, too.

Your biggest fear was a lull in work. And it came, but it wasn’t really a lull. You were exhausted and weak on a particularly rough mission, and you got hurt bad enough that Steve refused to let you leave the medical wing of the compound without written consent from one of the doctors. You waited, day in and day out, for that to happen. A week went by with your leg strung up and elevated. Then three more days went by as you practiced walking around the wing.

You had one contact outside of the compound that the nurses notified about your accident. They did it with your consent; they invited him into the medical wing because you’d told them to. You don’t know what were hoping for, but it wasn’t what you’d gotten. He didn’t care that most of your work-related bruises had healed and turned yellow or went back to normal already. He didn’t care that the cuts had scabbed over. He just cared that you’d gotten hurt, that you’d been stupid and reckless.

So he left new ones.

And then he left. He told you it was over, but he’d said that before. He told you it was for real, but he’d said that before, too. He always left his mark when he said those things, like he was claiming you and making sure you’d remember who’d marked you so you’d go back to him. You couldn’t figure out why you did, but after he left, you missed him. And you hated yourself for it.

Thor was the first person to visit you after him, and immediately he noticed something was wrong. You couldn’t meet his eye as he stepped into the room, and you could only wince when he tried to help you stand for a walking session.

“I can’t do it, Thor,” you mumbled, settling back into the hospital bed.

He shook his head. “You were doing well yesterday,” he said. He’d been helping you with walking the last couple of days, stopping in a few times throughout each day to share a meal, walk the halls, and make sure you were getting a visitor when you needed it most. He was patient and observant and you normally loved that, but you were cursing it as he stared you down.

“Not today,” you said, shutting your eyes because looking out at him was too much. Everything was too much. Knowing that if Thor looked close enough, he could see the finger-sized purple spots along your wrist made you want to cry, but even that would be conspicuous. So you held your breath and tightened your closed eyes and tried to will yourself into another universe.

But you couldn’t teleport. Thor was still standing beside your bed. You flinched when his fingers grazed your shoulder, and he pulled them back without hesitation.

“Hey,” he called softly. He was silent, seemingly waiting for you to respond, which you didn’t. Maybe if you kept your eyes closed, he’d go away. You wouldn’t have to face what was happening. You wouldn’t have to talk about any of it or pretend like it was okay when it wasn’t.

But he didn’t move. You could feel him next to you because his presence was so large and intimidating, though his voice was soft when he called, “Hey,” again. And then your heart stopped when he asked, “What happened?”

Your eyes flew open and, sure enough, he was staring at your hand closest to him.

“Those weren’t there yesterday,” he said. He never looked away from the purple marks, not even to blame you with his eyes. You were thankful for that, at least, but then he asked, “When did this happen?”

Your lip trembled and you felt your eyes fill with liquid. You were so tired of crying, so tired of being exhausted because you were crying. You were tired of letting little things set you off, like Thor’s large fingers gently brushing the bruises on your wrist. His touch didn’t hurt, but the fact that he touched you so gently, that he looked so distraught over you… It set you off.

You let out a loud sob, and his eye flew up to yours. His blue orb widened, and he shook his head. “(Y/N), why are you crying?” he asked. His fingers went to your face, pushing tears away from your cheeks as they flowed faster. He was so gentle, his hands barely touching your skin, that you cried harder. The heart rate monitor that you were hooked up to was ringing off the hook, but you hardly noticed. “(Y/N), _kjæreste_ , what’s wrong?”

But you couldn’t answer. You were a shaking, pained, breathless wreck. All you could do was cry because everything hurt and cry because you didn’t know what would happen tomorrow. You couldn’t tell Thor what had happened. You couldn’t burden him with that information. You couldn’t expect him to make things better when you did nothing to do that yourself.

He kneeled by the bed, still able to look up at you from the floor. Thor was so large he should’ve scared you, but he never did. He gripped your fingers gently - _so gently_ \- and asked again, “Please tell me, what happened?”

You took a deep, shaky breath and lifted your other hand to wipe more tears away. They didn’t stop as you prepared to tell him. His persistence had broken something in you - a good broken, like breaking a glow stick in a dark room. You nodded. You were done. The man who did this - he’d said this was done, that he’d meant it, and one way or another, you were, too. More than anything else, you were tired of feeling sorry for yourself, and with Thor below you like he was, you knew what you had to do to change the situation.

“My…um.” You sniffled. “My ex. He came by earlier. And he-” Your words got caught in your throat, and Thor looked from your face to you wrist again.

“He…hurt you?” he asked.

A fresh wave of sobs came out before you nodded.

“Today?” Thor asked.

Again, you nodded as you pushed tears off your cheeks. Your eyes shut, so you missed the look of absolute rage on Thor’s face. You missed the lightening of his eye and the reddening of his face, but felt the white hot prickles against your fingers. They somehow were less painful than the fingers that had left the marks on you, though twice as surprising when you looked down.

“Thor,” you said, staring at the lighting in his eyes and on his hands and all over his arms. “Thor, whatever you’re thinking- don’t do it. It won’t make a difference,” you said, but you didn’t believe it yourself.

He didn’t even seem to hear you, he let you go, stood slowly, and forced himself to breath heavily. He took a step back from the bed, clenched his fists, and left the room with heavy stomps. You tried to call out after him, but it made no difference. He was gone.

//

You didn’t see him for a few days. Wanda came to help you walk around the medical wing for two days, and then you were released on the condition that you stayed on bedrest in your own room for a few more days. You noticed that Wanda looked at you like she had something to feel sorry for, but she never looked at your wrist. She just helped you to your bed, asked if you wanted anything to eat or drink, then stayed with you for a while when you declined.

She talked about everything _except_ the now-lighter bruises. She didn’t even mention Thor. She did get quiet a little while into her visit, and then there was a knock on your door. She got up to answer it, then excused herself when she saw Thor on the other side of the threshold. He came in with his head low, quiet steps, and a little more wear and tear to his face than you were used to.

You sat up, now much quicker than you had in the hospital bed, and let your legs hang over the side of the bed. The injured leg felt better, if still a little sore. Just like your arm.

Thor stood over you without meeting your gaze. “That man,” he breathed, “will no longer be giving you trouble, (Y/N). I’ve made sure of it.”

You stood slowly. Thor shot his hands out to help you, just in case you needed it. You put your hands on his arms to steady yourself, then nodded somberly. “What did you do?” you asked, also unable to meet his eye.

“I protected you from harm,” he said, not at all helping his case.

You wanted to be grateful. Really. You’d been with your ex for a long time, and the bruises were nothing new at all. You knew you should be grateful for the help. And to some extent, you were. You were grateful that you had friends that looked out for you like this, but even so, that didn’t mean it was right. You didn’t want them fighting your battles for you, even if you hadn’t been able to fight them yourself.

“What. Did. You. Do, Thor?” you asked, forcing yourself to look up at him.

His wall came down when he met your glance. “I reported him to the authorities. I swear, that is all.”

You let out a breath and nodded. “And what did they do?”

“They arrested him,” he told you.

You almost asked him what for. But you asked yourself, instead, if it mattered. Thor had gone out on a limb for you - maybe not physically, given his power and size, but he’d seen you hurt and immediately wanted to help. You wanted out of that situation anyway. If your ex was behind bars, wasn’t that a good thing? Should it matter how it happened?

You didn’t have the answers you wanted. You didn’t think Thor did, either, but when you looked at him, you knew that something had ended and something else, something better was beginning.

“Don’t make it a habit, okay?” you asked softly. You didn’t quite smile at him, but you felt yourself soften. For the first time, you were aware of how comfortable you were in the compound, but especially around Thor. Thor - a warrior, a fighter, a man who wielded lightning and super powered axes and hammers - made you feel, for lack of a better term, safe. It was a pleasant thought, a pleasant feeling that you weren’t accustomed to.

He nodded slowly, then hugged you close. “I intend to do better by you, (Y/N),” he said. You didn’t know what he meant by that, but the sentiment still settled on your heart. So you hugged him back.


End file.
